This invention concerns sleeving for protecting elongated items such as electrical wiring harnesses, conduit and optical fiber strands from damage due to abrasion, shock, impact, heat and chemical exposure.
Elongated items such as conductive wires for carrying electrical power, control or communication signals, conduits for conducting hydraulic fluid, combustible liquid fuels or compressed gases, as well as optical fibers for transmitting communication signals, are used extensively in automotive, marine, and aerospace applications. Typically, such elongated items must follow tortuous paths and extend through regions, such as the engine compartment of an automobile, where they are exposed to harsh environmental conditions such as high ambient temperatures, radiant heat, corrosive liquids and gases, intense and continuous vibration (causing abrasion), as well as shock and impact damage.
It is advantageous to bundle such elongated items in sleeving which protects the items from the harsh environment and allows them to be conveniently supported throughout the vehicle and attached to the vehicle structure at a plurality of points. Elongated molded plastic channels having attachment clips spaced at intervals along the channel provide one example of protective sleeving currently in use. Flexible, resilient flap portions overlay the channel trough to removably retain wiring or other elongated items within the channel. Such channels have the stiffness necessary to adequately support their contents and can provide protection against the environment as required.
Unfortunately, such channels tend to be too stiff and have difficulty conforming to convenient pathways through the vehicle which may have multiple compound curves or curves with relatively small radii. It is further difficult to expose a significant length of the wire or optical fiber bundles in such molded channels when constructing a wiring harness or effecting a repair or a splice because the flap portions tend to be molded or biased into the closed position and must be continuously held open over their length to expose any significant portion of the items held within. Furthermore, the channels have a predetermined size which is optimized for a particular size bundle of elongated object. If too few items are held within a channel, the items will not be securely retained and will have room to vibrate and abrade against each other, possibly causing failures in a vital system served by the wires, conduits or optical fibers within the channel.
There is clearly a need for a protective sleeve which can provide adequate support and protection to a bundle of elongated items but which also allows for relatively greater ease of use, conformability to a desired pathway and greater versatility in the size and number of elongated items which may be secured within the sleeve.
The invention concerns rigidized sleeving for protecting elongated items. The term xe2x80x9crigidized sleevingxe2x80x9d refers to otherwise flexible sleeving that is reinforced to provide increased stiffness enabling the sleeving to adequately support the elongated items and yet remain relatively conformable so as to follow a pathway having compound curves and bends with small radii.
The sleeving preferably comprises a flexible, elongated substrate formed of interlaced, flexible, resilient filamentary members. The substrate has oppositely positioned, flexible edge portions extending along its length. Fastening means are positioned along each of the edge portions, the fastening means cooperating to attach the edge portions together to form the sleeving.
The sleeving also has a relatively rigid, elongated matrix attached lengthwise along the substrate between the flexible edge portions. This matrix serves as a backbone which rigidizes the sleeve. The edge portions are positionable in overlying relation with the matrix and attachable to one another with the aforementioned fastening means to form an interior space between the matrix and the edge portions for receiving the elongated items. Preferably, the edge portions are dimensioned to overlap one another when in overlying relationship with said matrix to allow for the use of hook and loop type fasteners to secure the edge portions to one another.
Preferably, the matrix comprises a plastic resin extruded onto or with the substrate. A plurality of grooves are arranged lengthwise along a surface of the matrix positioned within interior space. The grooves provide spaces which receive and hold the elongated items. Alternately, the sleeving may have a plurality of projections which extend outwardly from the surface, the projections being arranged in spaced apart relation to each other and extending lengthwise along the matrix to accommodate the lengthwise items between them. To retain the items between the projections, the projections have a particular cross sectional shape, such as a T shape or a triangular shape.
Preferably, the filamentary members of the substrate are interlaced by weaving in a relatively open weave and the matrix is integrally formed on both sides of the substrate by extruding a plastic resin with or onto it.